Laura and Giles | Portrait

I met Laura and Giles today to chat about their wedding in September and to have a little play with the camera. We had a quick gander around the wedding venue in Hassop before hopping over to Chatsworth to frolic with lambs. Giles regaled me with stories from his boyhood growing up in the area, plenty of hi-jinks took place in the Chatsworth grounds so the area had meaning. Giles has a real gift of the gab and I have a feeling his speech will be a goodun! He certainly had me and Laura giggling which always helps to keep things relaxed when taking photos.

I couldn't resist another play with double exposures ... I'm still working on this technique having only discovered it last week, but I'm enjoying the extra scope it gives for creativity. Laura and Giles are also fans of ANTP (America's next top model) so tried out their smizing (smiling with your eyes) ... looks like blue steel to me.

 All images ©KateCooperPhotography2014

Family Andrews | Portrait

Time for my annual shoot with Emma, Dan and their two spirited daughters. This time we hung out in Sheffield Botanical Gardens for the afternoon and played with squirrels, hedgehogs, rainbow umbrellas, bubbles and double exposures. After all that play we headed to Couch on Ecclesall road for coffee, cake and a couple of renditions of songs from Frozen. It's lovely to meet up and capture this family each year, I get to see how the girls change and grow and have a good natter with Emma. To mark the fact that this is an annual event, we started a tradition of taking a photo with a print from the last shoot, next year we'll print this shot and have that one in a photo ... if we keep this up we'll have an infinity effect of photos within photos within photos. Huzzah.

All images ©KateCooperPhotography2014

Family Heath | Portrait Shoot Winners

Last Autumn I ran a facebook free portrait shoot competition. The winners were the Heath family but what with weddings, weather and wintriness we only just found a good time to get it done. I met Stephen at a wedding a couple of years ago where he was providing the early evening entertainment belting out some classic numbers that had plenty of people on their feet singing along.

It was lovely to meet his family and go for a walk in the woods. His eldest daughter was just like all 2-3 year olds I've done portaits with ... determined to be herself and knowing of exactly what she did and didn't want to do. It's good to remember at these moments to let the child lead - too much pre determined expectation doesn't tend to get results - so we 'kept walking' as that's what she wanted to do, and shot around that.

I'll be setting up another free shoot on facebook in the coming weeks - keep your eyes peeled.

All images ©KateCooperPhotography2014